v. [f. FORE- pref. + ORDAIN.] trans. To ordain or appoint beforehand; to predestinate.
c. 1440. Partonope, 3154.
| Of the fayrest shapen creature | |
| That euer was foordened thorow nature. | |
| [But is this a mistake for foddened?] |
1561. T. Norton, Calvin’s Inst., III. 302. Some to be foreordeined to saluation, other some to destruction.
1611. Bible, 1 Pet. i. 20. Who verily was foreordeined before the foundation of the world.
1647. Westm. Conf. Faith, iii. § 3. By the decree of God, for the manifestation of His glory, some men and angels are predestinated unto everlasting life; and others foreordained to everlasting death.
1736–1879. [see below].
Hence Foreordained ppl. a.; Foreordaining vbl. sb. and ppl. a. Also Foreordainment, predestination.
c. 1420. Wyclif’s Mark, Prol. The for-ordenede John Zakaries sone, sent out in vois of an aungel.
1667. Bp. S. Parker, Free & Impart. Censure, 236. It implies nothing else but Gods designment of Jeremy to the Prophetick Office; for his knowing of him imports in its native and most unstrained sense, meerly his foreordaining him to that employment.
1736. Butler, Anal., II. iv. Wks. 1874, I. 200. The whole common course of nature is carried on according to general fore-ordained laws.
1864. Pusey, Lect. Daniel, v. 250. Their several blessings were, in a manner, the heraldic mottoes of each tribe, and spoke of God’s foreordaining love.
1879. Maclear, Mark i. 15, note. The great fore-ordained and predicted time of the Messiah.
1879. Farrar, St. Paul, II. 492. The loftiness, the fore-ordainment, and the result of this Gospel in uniting the Jew and Gentile within one great spiritual Temple.
